


A Troubling Homecoming

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 17:26:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18855646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Louisa returns from her honeymoon to find a surprise waiting for her in her stable.





	A Troubling Homecoming

It was strange, how quickly a place could come to feel like home. Louisa had enjoyed her honeymoon immensely, especially running around and introducing her wife to her family and the children of the horses she’d grown up with. Going with Lisa back to the little ranch that Lisa had grown up on before her mother’s untimely death (the new owners had happily allowed the two women in, most likely due to the presence of a celebrity that Lisa represented), seeing the sights in both of their home countries. It definitely hadn’t been a boring two weeks. Lisa had even written a song or two, and planned to record them after they’d recovered from the jet lag.

But, as soon as Louisa got home, there was one thing she wanted to do first of all.

“It’s alright if I go say hi to my babies, isn’t it?” Louisa asked, feeling guilty as soon as she saw how tired her wife looked.

“Go ahead,” said Lisa, giving her a tired smile from her spot sprawled on her back on their bed. “I’ll just lay here with Rusty and Barcode.” The two cats were currently sniffing her quite attentively, pressing little pink (and, in Barcode’s case black) noses directly onto her skin.

“And Sab and Marie and Lizzie and Simmi and Harold and Jake,” Louisa listed. Lisa laughed silently so that her body shook. Neither cat removed their tiny nose from her body.

“How you remember them all, I’ll never know,” said Lisa with a shake of her head.

“Hey, you grow up on a farm, you learn to remember the names of all your horses,” said Louisa. “Cadance has helped, though, of course.”

“Never thought I’d marry a crazy horse girl or know another crazy horse girl,” said Lisa, smiling at her. Louisa smiled back at her and leaned over to give her wife a kiss on the lips.

“On Jorvik? Crazy horse girls are the norm here,” said Louisa. “And crazy horse people in general.”

“Not many have a stable of over two hundred horses, though,” said Lisa.

“You’ve got me there,” said Louisa, tapping a finger to the tip of Lisa’s nose. Lisa smiled up at her, eyes twinkling like the star birthmark that adorned her cheek and the twin golden bands that adorned her finger.

“But seriously, go see your ponies,” said Lisa. “I’ll be fine here with your many cats.”

“Our many cats,” Louisa corrected her as she straightened up and turned to walk out of the room. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and couldn’t help but smile at her reflection. The honeymoon had brought out a glow to her that she honestly hadn’t expected, though that was probably at least partially the tan. Her hair was still a bit of a mess from the plane ride back to Jorvik and then the shuttle bus that had taken them from the airport to Jorvik City. One more bus and then the ferry and then Shane had given them a lift to the house. Louisa wondered when her friends would plan her welcome home party, and who would be the one doing the planning.

But first, Louisa had been without her beloved four-legged equine companions for too long. Of course, her friends (who had all chipped in to do their part in looking after her horses while she was away) had been sending her almost-hourly updates and more than enough pictures, but seeing them and hearing about them had only deepened the ache.

Louisa almost ran to the stables, jogging by the time she approached the large building that had been repaired and then extended upon thousands of times. It had been the old stables on the rescue ranch back in its heyday, and since Hugh wasn’t using it, Louisa had been allowed to use it. Just so long as she allowed some of her horses to be used for therapy, which she was more than happy to do.

Past the little yard out the front where horses were occasionally turned out, past the hanging wooden sign that now proudly read ‘McPeters Stables’ in fancy golden script beneath a silver five-pointed star, and Louisa reached the doors of her stable. The smell of horses was strong here, one with such strong nostalgia that she felt tears in her eyes as she pulled the door open.

“She’s home!” Goldmist whinnied to the stables at large, raising his head. He was in the stall directly to the right across from the front door, as he always was. Louisa couldn’t stop grinning as she went to her beloved Soul Steed, reaching out to take his head in her hands and press kisses to his snout.

“I missed you, boy,” said Louisa, tears rolling down her cheeks as the sound of many horses celebrating at once washed over her. There were whinnies and neighs of delight, stomping of hooves, a few even broke out of their stalls to surround her and nose at her hair. Though, there was one horse that was conspicuously absent. Louisa wasn’t too worried, though- that was quite normal for him.

“We missed you too,” said Smokeeye from the stall behind Louisa. Louisa turned and grinned at her mare, who was placed in a stall beside Starshine’s stall. Lisa had moved her horse in here after she’d moved in, considering she spent so much time here anyway. Besides, the horses stabled at the manor were snooty and Starshine liked Louisa’s horses much better. They all knew the real reason, though- Starshine just wanted to be with his mate and foals.

While Louisa bonded with her favourite mare, running her hand over the long mane, she breathed in the scent of horses and truly felt at home. Even though she’d felt at home the second she’d set foot back on Jorvik. It was odd- she’d felt a little at home when she’d visited her childhood home and her family, but that had been mostly nostalgia and reuniting with family. Especially after everything that had happened. She’d even managed to talk to her aunt about the Soul Riders and druids, even convincing Lisa to tell her about things. Her aunt had been amazed to meet a real Soul Rider, though she hadn’t been too starstruck, mercifully. Louisa’s sisters, though, had been a different story altogether, peppering Louisa with questions about what it was like to date a celebrity.

“Alright, I’ll bite,” said Louisa after finally pulling herself from her memories and Smokeeye’s presence. “Where is he?” Nobody needed to ask which ‘he’ she meant. King was boarding with Phantom for a little bit in Viktor’s stables, but Louisa wasn’t talking about him.

“Oh, he’s here,” said Goldie. “Trouble, come show Louisa what you made.”

Slowly, the crowd of horses parted to make way for a bay tobiano Trakehner whose head was lower than usual, his hooves more of a shuffle while his ears were pinned. He looked at Louisa, somehow managing to look like a guilty puppy despite being a much larger, fully-grown horse.

“Hi, mum,” said Trouble, and Louisa had never heard him sound so sheepish in his life.

“Trouble,” said Louisa, smiling even as she shook her head at him. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” said Trouble, his mental voice a little too high. Louisa folded her arms over her chest.

“Trouble, I just got home from my honeymoon, and quite frankly, I’m still a little jetlagged,” said Louisa. “Now, tell me- what did you do?”

Trouble was the only horse that Louisa had ever heard whine as he gave her those sad eyes again.

“I don’t know where he is,” Trouble muttered, scratching his shoulder as though that would muffle his voice.

“He?” Louisa echoed. “What, did Rich break in here?” She got her phone out of her pocket, checking to see if she had any messages from Ella. She’d forgotten to turn it back on after getting off the plane, and now, it exploded with messages from her friends, all welcoming her back. Louisa couldn’t help but grin, more tears springing easily to her eyes as she read the heartwarming messages and the many strings of emojis. Still none from Via, which stung a little, but hopefully they’d find her soon. It was like she’d dropped off the face of the earth. Nothing unusual from Ella, though. But Smokeeye snorted, drawing Louisa’s attention away from her phone. Louisa wiped the fresh tears from her face, breathing deeply in an effort to rein in her emotions.

“He broke in a few too many times, if you catch my meaning,” said Smokeeye.

“Huh?” Louisa asked, frowning in confusion now.

But then, as silence fell while the horses tried to get Trouble to fess up out of guilt, Louisa heard another strange sound. It sounded like shuffling, almost like a very large rat. Which, knowing Jorvik, wouldn’t exactly be surprising or out of the ordinary. Louisa approached the sound with caution, though, her heart speeding up in her chest. She really hoped that one of Alberta’s babies hadn’t gotten in here. Tyler had taken Lisa’s pet spider while they were on their honeymoon, so it couldn’t be her.

A little tobiano horse with a bridle caught over his head and a saddlepad over his back, along with another bridle hanging from his ear and a saddle half over his back, was the last thing Louisa expected to see.

“Oh, you found him,” said Trouble, walking over to stand beside Louisa outside the tack room.

“Trouble,” said Louisa, her voice soft. But Trouble’s ears still went back as he shuffled away from her, the smaller horse mirroring the motions and looking so much like Trouble that- “Trouble, you’re a gelding, what the fuck? How the fuck?”

“I found a weird drink in Ella’s house,” said Trouble.

“What were you doing in Ella’s house?” Louisa asked.

“Don’t worry about that,” said Trouble, giving a swish of his tail that was the human equivalent of waving a hand to dismiss something. “Anyway, I found a weird drink and drank it and then suddenly I was a mare and then Rich-“

Here Louisa clamped her hands over Trouble’s muzzle, not that it would shut him up in any way when it was a mental voice. She did her best to shut it off, though, but she caught the gist of it.

“So you’ve actually been a pregnant mare this whole time and I never noticed?” Louisa asked.

“No,” said Trouble, finally lifting his head. “Don’t worry, you didn’t miss that. It just happened really fast.” Louisa shook her head, blinking to try to make sense of it.

“So you mean to tell me,” said Louisa. “That in the two weeks that I was gone. Two weeks! You found a potion that turned you into a mare, took the next step with Rich, had a lightning-fast pregnancy, and now you have a child.” Trouble muttered something. “Oh, my mistake. Two. You have tw- where’s the other one then?” She looked at Trouble, who still looked sheepish.

“Ella has the other troubling,” said Trouble. “That’s what she calls them.”

“Right,” said Louisa. She got her phone out again, finding Ella’s number and sending her a text. The response was a picture of the other ‘troubling’, this one eating a hat.

“I don’t know either. Nobody can explain anything. Squinting at magic man. Also dad man. Also Evergay.” Ella had texted back along with the picture.

“I’m so sorry about this” Louisa sent back.

“That’s just how Jorvik is” was Ella’s only response. Followed by a smiley face to show that she wasn’t mad. Louisa relaxed, then looked back at the naughty small horse. The bridle fell off his ear, followed by the saddle sliding from his back.

“That really is just how Jorvik is,” said Louisa, putting her phone away again. She pulled the bridle from the small horse’s head, then put the saddle pad to the side. “There you go, is that better?” The pony tilted his head to the side, flicking his ear. And then his tongue came out to lick Louisa’s face.

“So you’re not mad?” Trouble asked, still hovering behind her.

“I’ll consider him a late wedding gift,” said Louisa, wiping the worst of the slobber from her face with her sleeve. “He’s cute.”

“I’m glad you think so,” said Goldie. “He’s as much trouble as his father. Mother. Parent.”

“Well then, that settles the name dilemma,” said Louisa. “Unless you and Rich had any ideas, Trouble?”

“We weren’t even expecting this,” said Trouble. Louisa blinked.

“First of all, we need to have The Talk, even if it’s a bit late,” said Louisa. “And second, I’m naming this child Minitrouble since he looks just like you.”

“I like that,” said Trouble. “Also, what talk?”

“After I join my wife to sleep off our jet lag,” said Louisa. She suddenly felt very, very tired. But also immensely glad to be home.


End file.
